Fabricating Architecture: CAD / CAM in the Business of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction
Digital modeling in architectural design necessitates a collaborative and integrated design process. The success of the digital process may require 'throwing away the rule book' as James Glyph says, but such radically innovative workflows threaten with unforeseen and perhaps deleterious consequences. In my experience working, firms are reluctant to openly share information; they believe that giving out more information to contractors and clients leaves them (the architect) on the hook for the exactitude of that data. When problems arise or when costs are disputed, the less information the designer could have messed up, the less they have to worry about litigation. Of course, these concerns are very much a product of old methodologies of working where distinct professions are contractually bound to distinct aspects of the project; digital design techniques require a transgression of these methodologies.
While the Glyph cites design / build as particularly suited to a CAD / CAM workflow, he neglects to mention integrated project delivery—a deployment specifically built around the integration of owner, architect, and contractor with shared risk and shared reward. Often this can be accomplished by creating a temporary legal entity (corporation for example) that encompasses all disparate parties. By establishing a legal framework of collaboration, the benefits of CAD / CAM collaborative workflow are more easily realized by the trepidatious architect.